


If My Heart Is Artifical, Will It Still Connect To Yours?

by TulePubPirate



Category: Final Fantasy IX, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Death, Flower Crowns, Friendship, Gen, Some fighting, our hearts are always connected, what it means to have a heart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2014-10-26
Packaged: 2018-02-22 17:52:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2516597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TulePubPirate/pseuds/TulePubPirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Sora finds two black mages lost in the woods he never guessed how much they had to teach him about friendship, what it means to be alive, and to carry the wonderful burden of having a heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If My Heart Is Artifical, Will It Still Connect To Yours?

“Ouch,” Sora grumbled as he pushed himself up off the ground onto his hands and knees, head spinning from the hard landing. He stood carefully, testing out his limbs for any broken bones, but felt nothing more than aches and bruises. “Lucky me, I guess. Now where am I?” It looked like he had landed in a pine forest. The ground was covered in a thick carpet of dried needles, the trees somewhat thin and sickly-looking. There was no sign of any people around.

“Donald? Goofy?” Sora called out, hoping his friends would answer. “Can you hear me?” Sora waited, but heard no reply. “Guess I’m on my own then. I wonder if there’s any people near here.” He eyed a nearby tree that _seemed_ sturdy enough. And he wasn’t going to get anywhere wandering around aimlessly.

From his vantage point at the top of his gently swaying pine tree, he could see that luckily he wasn’t _too_ deep in the forest, though it might take him a day or two to get clear. There were mountains in the distance, and what looked like a huge stone building jutting up just before the range. Sora supposed that was as good a destination as any. He was starting to climb down when he heard a loud bird-like screech and people screaming. He twisted his head, scanning for the source of the noise and saw what looked like some sort of huge half-bird, half-lion charging at two smaller figures not far away.

“Hang on! I’m coming to help!” he called, dropping from the tree and rolling up from the ground in a shower of needles, and charging forward, keyblade in hand. He sprinted through the underbrush and tree trunks as fast as he could, arriving just in time to block the bird-beast from slicing off one person’s arm with its vicious claws.

“Stay behind me!” he called back, keeping his eyes locked on the monster. “I’ll protect you from this thing—don’t worry!” He charged the creature, driving it back with a Fira spell and slipping under the smoke to land a blow at the joint of one of its wings. He heard bone crack and the creature screamed, lunging at him with its massive, sharp beak. Sora jumped back and swung his keyblade into the side of the creature’s face, making it stagger. He pushed forward while it was weak, driving it away from the two travelers with hard blows to its neck and shoulders, then called down a thunder spell . The beast reared, flapping it one good wing, and turned tail to run deeper into the woods, faster than Sora could chase it.

 _Well, I scared it off at least, so everyone’s safe. That’s what really matters._ He wiped sweat from his brow and turned to look at the pair of travelers who he’d come to rescue. They looked like they’d had a rough time on the road—their poofy white pants were splotched with mud and their purple coats were tattered. They each had matching broad-rimmed pointy hats, which they were clutching with both hands, huddled together and hiding their faces. Sora approached them slowly, kneeling down so he was on the same level as them.

“Hey, it’s alright now,” he told them, soothingly as he could. “I scared off the monster, and I doubt it’ll come back. There’s nothing to fear.” He reached out a hand, though he wasn’t sure they could see it, hidden as they were. “Come on. I’ll come with you guys out of the forest—or wherever you’re going! It’s gonna be okay!” Neither of the pointy-hatted travelers moved, but one of them seemed to be muttering something, the words almost drowned out by nervous stuttering. Sora leaned a bit closer, straining to listen.

“H-h-h-h-human!” 

“Human? You mean me?” _Why would they be frightened of me?_ As Sora pondered what made him as frightening as a forest monster, one of the travelers, the one who spoke, peeked out from behind their glove, revealing a face made of swirling black shadows and large, luminous yellow eyes.

“Heartless!” Sora scrambled backwards, fumbling for his keyblade. The other traveler jumped to his feet, shaking his fist at Sora and looking like he was about to cry. 

“Are you c-calling us ‘h-h-heartless!?’ You h-h-umans are the heartless ones! We barely escaped your wars and your s-s-oldiers. You h-h-h-humans would use us mages as tools! But we aren’t d-d-olls like the others! We’re alive! We d-d-on’t have to l-listen to y-y-ou! Leave us alone!” They tried to hoist their companion to his feet, but the other—mage?—seemed too frightened to stand.

“Wait! Wait!” Sora called, releasing his keyblade and putting his hands in the air. “I’m sorry, okay! I thought you were Heartless when I first saw your faces—you look similar—but I guess I was wrong! Heartless generally don’t talk, at least!” He tried a small laugh, scratching the back of his head ruefully. “Please don’t run off! I’m, uh, kinda lost, you see. I could really use your help. Friends?” He smiled tentatively, holding out his hand again. The two travelers stared at it nervously, then the one on the ground tugged the other’s sleeve and began whispering, loud enough that Sora could still hear.

“I don’t think this human’s a soldier, No. 524.”

“Of course he is! You saw his sword!” The other— _number five twenty-four? What kind of name is that?_ — whispered back.

“And he used it to fight the griffin himself. A soldier would have made us do it. I don’t want to fight any monsters. I don’t want to be lost in this forest anymore. I think we should trust the human. They can’t all be bad?”

“How can you say that, when you’re the one too scared of him to even stand up! Even if _he’s_ not bad, he’ll just take us to other humans and then those humans will send us back to fight! It’s a bad idea!”

“Please, No. 524? We won’t be able to make it out of these woods by ourselves! We can just follow him out of here and then go find the others! I’m scared of him, but—but I don’t want to stop here, like No. 346 and No. 532 in the caves!” The other mage began to shake, tugged his hat down over his face again.

“No. 248,” No. 524 sighed, rubbing their companion’s shoulder. “We’re not gonna stop, ok? No. 346 and No. 532 will wake up and come join us soon, I promise. Maybe they’ve even reached the others ahead of us since they didn’t get lost in the forest like we did!” No. 524 tried to sound confidant, but Sora could see them start to shiver too. They turned warily towards Sora, giving him a long, suspicious look. 

“I promise,” Sora said, trying to soothe them once more, “I won’t make you fight anybody! And if you guys are lost as well, then isn’t better to be lost together?” Sora waited, but the two mages just kept staring at him in silence. “Listen, I’m looking for my friends too, just like you are! If we team up as a group, it’ll make it that much easier to find them! And don’t worry—the friends I’m looking for, Donald and Goofy? They aren’t human either! Donald’s actually a duck, and Goofy—Goofy—well, I’m not quite sure _what_ Goofy is, now that I think about it. I’ve always just thought of him as _Goofy_ , but he’s not human, I can tell you that!” 

No. 524 stayed silent and wary, but No. 248 finally stood up and tugged at the other’s sleeve again. “I’m sure he’s not lying. And he promised us we wouldn’t have to fight. I say we go with him. Just for a little while. We can always run away later!”

No. 524 shook their head and sighed. “Fine, No. 248! We’ll go with the human for now. Just until we know where to find the others.”

“Alright!” Sora cheered, pumping his fist in the air. “So your names are No. 248 and No. 524? Mine’s Sora! Let’s be friends, okay?” He held out his hand one last time, but No. 248 just held out their hand in a similar position from three feet away.

“Sora,” he repeated. “I’m not familiar with human…manners? No. 346 knew more and they haven’t caught up with us since they stopped moving, but i-it’s nice to meet you?”

Sora stepped forward to grasp No. 248’s hand and shake it. “Nice to meet you too! Now where exactly are we going? Do either of you know?”

“There’s supposed to be others like us somewhere, hiding from, um, you,” No. 248 said as No. 524 glared at them.

Me? Oh, you mean humans! Do you know where they’re hiding?”

No. 524 glared harder, at Sora this time, but No. 248 shook his head. “We heard about it from No. 346.”

“Well,” Sora said, tapping his chin. “I saw a big old building just outside of this forest. Maybe your friends are hiding there? It won’t hurt to check, right?”

“I guess,” No. 524 grumbled. “But they aren’t going to let any humans in there. And maybe not us if we’re with you!” 

“Oh, I guess that’s a problem, huh. Well, why don’t we head towards the place I saw anyway! If your friends are there, you can head in without me, and just ask them if they’ve seen Donald or Goofy? And if not, I’ll help you guys keep looking! How’s that sound?” Sora smiled encouragingly, and felt immensely relieved when No. 524 slowly nodded. That mage was a prickly one—they reminded Sora of Donald. “Awesome! Then follow me! It looks like we’ve still got a good amount of daylight left, so if we keep at it, we should be out of these woods before tomorrow night!” No. 248’s eyes brightened, and they took No. 524 by the hand, pulling them along behind as Sora started walking towards the mountains and the odd square building at their feet.

\-----------------------------------------

Sora soon discovered that the two mages were not built for speed. Or distances. Or being outdoors at all, it seemed. No. 248 jumped at every shadow, including their own, and No. 524 grumbled loudly under their breath about “humans” for all three days it took the group to reach the forest’s edge. But even though they weren’t ideal wilderness companions, Sora kind of felt sorry for them. Sora wasn’t certain of the whole story, but from what he was able to piece together, it seemed the mages had escaped from a battlefield somewhere, and were fleeing so they weren’t forced to fight anymore. They’d started out as a group of four, and it was one of the two they’d lost on the way who’d told them rumors of a village of refugees, living in hiding far away in the wilderness. They reminded Sora of himself, when the Heartless had first attacked Destiny Islands, leaving him stranded and alone in Traverse Town—they were small and young, searching desperately for their friends, unsure of where they were or where to go. Sora was determined to help them.

And his companions slowly warmed up to him as they trekked across open fields towards the structure in the distance. The atmosphere once they left that dark, sickly forest probably helped. Out in the fields, the sun shone brightly, songbirds flitted through the air, wildflowers bloomed everywhere, dancing in the gentle breezes. No. 248 was delighted by the flowers, especially the purple ones. He asked Sora a thousand questions about them—most of which Sora could barely make heads or tails of, much less answer—and picked up every fallen petal that crossed his path. So one night, Sora came back from gathering firewood with a small bouquet of them.

“Hey, No.248! Want me to show you something?” 

The mage was nervous at first, as Sora taught them how to braid a string of blossoms together into a crown, but once they had mastered the technique, their eyes crinkled in a great smile. They promptly placed the crown over their pointy hat, laughing and clapping and dancing around the fire. No. 524 grumbled, but Sora noticed them trying to sneakily watch as Sora finished braiding a crown for himself.

“Do you want one too, No. 524?” he asked, making the mage jump and turn away angrily. 

No. 248 walked over and prodded their shoulder. “Don’t be mean! If you don’t want Sora to make it, I’ll teach you!” They picked up a bundle of blue and pink flowers from their and Sora’s pile, and sat down next to No. 524, nudging and poking the other mage to make them pay attention as they careful strung together half a garland, then handed it over, saying, “See? It’s easy! You try!” But No. 524 was not quite as dexterous as their friend, it seemed, and couldn’t get the flowers to stay together. And No. 248 got confused while trying to show them were they went wrong, and soon the whole chain was unraveling, so Sora cautiously approached the two, taking No. 524’s hands into his own to show them the right way to keep the braids together. It was the first time No. 524 had let Sora within five feet of them—at least without accusing him of being an evil human— and Sora had to bite back his grin and resist the urge to give the nervous mage a hug.

The next day, flowers still gracing their hats and hair, found them close enough to the structure to see it was almost like a group of tall square buildings that had all merged into one, sitting on top of what looked to Sora like a massive gnarled tree root. The building was filled with huge open arches, with thin trails of smoke floating up from unseen fires.


End file.
